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Perhaps no other American city's identity is so entwined with the profession of architecture as buildings of Chicago, Illinois. On April 4, the Art Institute unveiled a hypothetical skyline for the Windy City, one recorded in pixels and on paper rather than in concrete, glass, or steel. Chicago architect Dan Wheeler, of the firm Wheeler Kearns, drew from the Institute's collection of more than 130,000 architectural objects to showcase some 90 drawings, renderings, and models of never-built projects dating from 1880 to the present. The show reveals Chicago's long history as fertile ground for design ingenuity at all scales. The theoretical work Expanding Skyscraper by Reginald Malcomson, a tower to which cantilevered floor plates could be added over time, is an intriguing attempt to weigh the fluctuating demands of the city against the immutable nature of completed buildings.

The article reviews several exhibitions including "Learning From North Lawndale," at the ArchiCenter in Chicago, Illinois, through November 18, 2006, "The Loop: Designs for a Vertical City," at ArchiTech Gallery in Chicago, Illinois, through November 25, 2006, and "Investigating Where We Live," at the National Building Museum in Washington D.C. through November 26, 2006.